VH-POO

Constructor's number 1850549 was built in 1963. It was N2549Z in the United States and was registered in Australia as VH-KPA on 3 May 1963. It was withdrawn from use in April 1983. On 29 July 1985, at the end of a landing roll at Jandakot, it ground-looped in a light quartering tailwind. The left gear leg broke and the wing, tailplane and propeller hit the ground. Nobody was hurt. It was restored and, from 1988, flew with Kevron.

In October 1998, still as VH-KPA and on a dog-baiting contract, a fuel cap was fitted incorrectly. The cap lifted, the tanks siphoned, and the aircraft ran out of fuel. That account was published in Flight Safety Australia, January–February 2008.

The marks changed to VH-KPW on 20 December 1999, and to VH-POO on 1 January 2008 — the registration on these photographs. Those marks were later given up. By 2014 VH-POO had been reissued to a different aeroplane, a Bearhawk. The 185 itself is still on the register as VH-KPZ, a 185B, with the same holder recorded from January 2006.